Lough Sheelin Angling Report July 13th – July 26th 2020
‘Hello darkness, my old friend,
I’ve come to talk with you again’
Paul Simon
Last week’s absence of an angling report was due to the mysterious disappearance of an internet connection. Disappearing acts were seemingly not confined to the office either as the Sheelin trout have also been keeping a low profile over the past fortnight, showing little evidence of their presence to the anglers who, in general have struggled to rise fish. A continual surge of rain sweeping in from the Atlantic has ensured showers and more persistent spells of the wet stuff on most days. Rain, unless it is extremely heavy doesn’t really affect the fishing, wind and its strength and abrupt changes in direction can be the real enemy.
5 lbs of Sheelin’s finest disappearing into Sheelin’s deeps
Over the past week, Lough Sheelin’s successes have mostly been an after dark affair. A few trout have been caught during the day trolling wets but the quiet winners are those anglers who drift on to the lake in the evening and remain there as the daylight bleeds into darkness. The window of opportunity could be as little as 5 minutes but still the windows did open even if they did shut fairly quickly on some evenings.
The sedge hour
When Sheelin swings into dusk fishing like this I can’t help but be reminded of one elderly gentleman, many years ago at sedge time, happily telling me that the Sheelin fish were like his teeth ‘they only come out at night’ and so is the case now, the only real movement to surface feed is at a time when most of us are thinking of going to bed.
The inconvenience and impracticality of late evening and night fishing means that angling numbers are low and although some lovely ‘sedge’ trout were caught, returns could have been higher if there had been more action from the fish during the day. Another element to factor in is that we are in the middle of sedge time and the hatching of these hairy winged insects is often in the evening and as the light is fading so this is extra encouragement to the trout to surface at a late hour. There have been some excellent hatches of the Green Peter along with plenty of sedges carpeting the surface of the water but again and without sounding a bit vampire like, all this happens at dusk and after dark. There are still plenty of opportunities left here for the peter fishing so if the weather behaves itself it’s an open book to catch a big trout.
Sheelin’s Peter – Agrypnia varia
Although water levels have gone up, the temperature in the top water column is still too high at 15°C, the trout are still pitching but not as much as in previous weeks. In my last report I pondered the reason for these aerial leaps and I liked angler Richard Hunter’s theory that perhaps the fish leap out of the water because they are attacking the fry from beneath. The trout round up the fry in tight balls and swim at speed from below, slashing their tail to injury as many as possible and because the trout are not equipped with brakes they shoot up into the air. It is similar to whales hunting herring without the team work. Pitching trout can be a reassurance that the trout are actually there particularly when there isn’t much movement to flogging teams of wets hour upon hour. The day time fishing was that poor that there is a joke going round that the trout in Sheelin are abiding by the Covid rules and wearing masks which stops them taking the fly.
A feathered observer
Although many anglers struggled over the past number of weeks, there were some beautiful trout caught ranging in weights from 3 lbs to almost 6 lbs and also in colour from silver to burnished gold. There are plenty of theories about trout colour and there is a correlation between fish darkness and fish age as trout do get darker with age but the safest way to understand and discuss variation in fish colour is to just accept genetic variability within the species.
31 trout catches were recorded with the two weeks with James Casey’s fabulous ‘sedge’ trout of almost 6 lbs taking the top weight over the past 14 days.
Sheelin scenes and selection of catches
1 of 15
The witching hour - a trout of over 5lbs
The sedge hour on Lough Sheelin
Trout with a buzzer eyelash
The mercurial beauty of Lough Sheelin (fish or no fish)
No complaints here - a beautiful 61cm trout (5lbs 11ozs) caught by James Casey on July 13th 2020
Michael Power with his Sheelin trout
Evening sky
Burnished gold - an after dark trout of almost 4lbs
Cloud cover
A July catch
Sedge fish
Gary McKiernan of Lough Sheelin Guiding with a 58cm trout caught on wets
Fine fish
A daylight fish - 4lbs 10ozs caught on an Emerging Peter
Lough Sheelin's magic - a trout of almost 6lbs
Most of the trout that were caught were during the late evening and at dusk and most of them were caught on small dry sedge and emerger patterns.
Day time fishing was poor with the daylight anglers reporting long frustrating hours of constantly casting teams of wets with poor return on effort and few rises of trout.
Sedge pupae imitation
The flies that did secure a salute from the trout were the Murrough, small dark olive patterns, dry sedge (12 -14), Booby on the point, Green Peter, a combination of a small Golden Olive on the pt., Green Peter in the middle and a Claret Bumble on the top, Cock Robin, Shipman’s, Bobs Bits, Hoppers, Claret Bumble, Silver Daddy, International Dabbler, Sedge hogs, Klinkhammers, Stimulators, Sedge pupae, Daddies, Zulu, the Grey Duster and a Red Tailed Peter.
Black CDC hopper
For those anglers after the daphnia feeders, head for the open water using a bright orange fly. When fishing small dry sedges along sheltered areas it is best to use a floating line with a 4 – 6 lb. leader.
The bugs and critters
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The weirdly beauty - a Cinnabar
The cream of the crop - Lough Sheelin's sedges
The Common Footman
Sedge on grass
Lough Sheelin's Poplar Hawk-moth
Limnephilus flavicornis
Follow the leader
'Eye contact' Double lobed
A tussle between the real and the real Peter
A newly hatched Limnephilus marmoratus
A spider eating a Silverhorn sedge
A male Molanna albicans
A lake Olive Spinner
A Blue-tailed Damselfly preying on a male Molanna albicans
The places that produced catches were down along the Western shore of the lake, Stony Island, at the back of Church Island, Merry Pt., Wilson’s pt., Inchacup, Chambers Bay and from Kilnahard down to Crover, Crane Island, Bog Bay, Corru and Sailors Garden and into Goreport, Lynch’s Pt., Derrysheridan and Derry Pt.
A catch & release policy is actively encouraged on the lake at all times
Catch & Release
Catch & Release
Please remember anglers to abide by BYE-LAW 949 which strictly prohibits from June 14th 2017 onwards:
The taking of any brown trout of less than 36 centimeters.
For a person to fish with more than 2 rods at any one time.
To fish with more than 4 rods at any one time when there is more than one person on board the boat concerned.
For a person to take more than 2 trout per day.
All trolling on the lake from March 1st to June 16th (inclusive).
To fish or to attempt to take or to fish for, fish of any kind other than during the period from March 1st to October 12th in any year.